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Tuesday, 24 December 2013

Nirbhaya Fund

The formulation of Scheme of Relief and Rehabilitation to victims/ survivors of rape have been reviewed, as the compensation part for rape victim has been overtaken by provision of Section 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure which states that every State Government in co-ordination with the Central Government shall prepare a scheme for providing funds for the purpose of compensation to the women victim of crime including rape. So far 20 states and 7 UTs have formulated the Victim Compensation Scheme. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is also administering Swadhar and Short Stay Home Schemes for rehabilitation of women in difficult circumstance including the victims of rape.

The Nirbhaya Fund is administered by Department of Economic Affairs. As informed by them, an amount of Rs. 1000.00 crore has been credited to the “Nirbhaya Fund”. The Department of Information and Technology and Ministry of Home Affairs have sent schemes to enforce mandatory provision of SOS Alert Buttons in all the Mobiles handsets/providing SOS alert system in the existing handsets through free downloading of suitable software and backend integration of police administration to respond to distress calls in the minimum response time for funding from the Nirbhaya Fund. Further, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has also sent a scheme of ‘Security of Women in road transport in the country’ for funding from the Nirbhaya Fund. Ministry of Women and Child Development have also sent a programme ‘SHUBH’, which envisages vulnerability mapping, provides support for prevention focused activities such as awareness generation through sustained campaign initiatives against violenceAdvocacy; information dissemination regarding available services; sensitisation of caregivers; new measures for preventing violence and also replicating good practices in identified locations has been prepared for funding from the Nirbhaya Fund.

This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha today.